GGW Picture This Photo Contest Winner for September

I didn’t go into this contest expecting my job to be easy. But when I’m sorting through quantities of photos, focused on choosing the perfect shot to complement accompanying text or to illustrate a certain design point, I’m used to having just one image jump out at me as the perfect choice. So then it would just be a matter of choosing a runner-up or two, right?

Well, as soon as I started reviewing this month’s entries, I knew I was in trouble. How could just one photo illustrate all of the features that make ornamental grasses such special plants to me? Fortunately, Fran and I had decided earlier that I could award multiple gold and silver medals this month, so I decided to separate the entries into several categories for separate judging — grasses in gardens and landscapes, lighting, closeups, and “artistic” — with a gold and silver winner for each. So, here we go:

Grasses in Gardens and Landscapes

I have to cringe when nursery customers dismiss grasses as looking “too weedy.” How sad that they can’t appreciate the beauty of these graceful plants in a natural setting, as so beautifully shown in the photo (right) by Jean of DigGrowCompostBlog of grasses at Davis Mountains State Park in southwest Texas, let alone the many ways that grasses shine in gardens. Healingmagichand’s entry showcases a variety of grasses forming dramatic vertical accents in her Petite Prairie at The Havens, while the shots of ‘Morning Light’ miscanthus by Christoper of Outside Clyde, Linda of An Artist’s Garden, and Janet at Queen of Seaford (with bonus butterfly) emphasize just one popular grass’s distinctive form and texture.

Gradually, gardeners are beginning to appreciate plants that look as good after bloom as they do while in full flower, and ornamental grasses are some of the most gracefully aging perennials around. James at View from Federal Twist shared a glorious shot of ‘Cloud Nine’ switch grass in its golden fall glory (right), and Melody treated us to her daughter’s lovely composition of seedheads shown off by the autumn colors of nearby trees. It’s the outstanding winter presence of grasses that excites me most, though, and their tenacity is well captured in a mid-January shot of porcupine grass and switch grass by Debbie at Garden of Possibilities.

Maybe it’s my winter bias that influenced my top two choices, but hey, I’m the judge and I’m allowed to have a bias, right? So, my pick for the Picture This Silver Medal for this category is the snowy scene of miscanthus in the garden of Yvonne at Yvonne’s Country Garden.

And the Picture This Gold Medal goes to another chilly but surprisingly color-rich combination of grasses and conifers at Toronto’s Music Garden, submitted by Janet of Beautiful Botany. With images like this, who could argue that grasses are messy and weedy-looking?

Grasses up Close

Another unfair objection to grasses that I hear sometimes is that they’re simply green and boring. The images we’ve already seen amply illustrate their beauty in the garden, but these plants also hold up on close inspection, delighting curious gardeners with the dainty beauty of their blooms and seeds. Little surprise, then, that a number of our entrants chose to get up close and personal with their grasses. Joco shared a breeze-tossed grouping of beautifully bleached seedheads, Jill-O took a good look at the intricate infloresence of northern sea oats, and Radhika of Native Again Landscape shared a stunning shot of quaking grass’s pearly seedheads (above), with the elegant addition of a beautiful butterfly.

Back-lighting shows up stunning details in closeups, as so beautifully shown by Caroline of The Shovel-Ready Garden in her shot of purple fountain grass, and by MacGardens in his image of green foxtail (left).

And for the Picture This Gold Medal, there was just something about the spiky simplicity of deer grass, as captured by Barbara of Weeding Wild Suburbia, that whispered “pick me!”

The Art of Grasses

Several of this month’s images had some indefinable quality that put them into a category of their own, which I’ve been thinking of as “artistic.” I found the big-sky shot of zebra grass by Dave of The Home Garden remarkably dramatic, for instance, and the image of bluegrass seedheads with ironweed submitted by Marmee of Things I Love is more like a painting than a photograph.

I snuck in another placement here, because it was so hard for me to choose between the final two. So, the second Picture This Silver Medal goes to the spikes-in-the-snow shot from Scott at Rhone Street Gardens.

And the Picture This Gold Medal? I don’t think I can explain exactly why I love the shot of little bluestem and another grass submitted by Alexa of Invisiblebees so much. I just do.

All of you who have been awarded a medal can grab the appropriate badge from this post and display it on your blog, if you wish. And, a big thanks to all who took the time to enter!

Galleries of Grasses

I have no more prizes left to give, but I wanted to offer a special thank-you to the bloggers who were inspired to share multiple images of their favorite grasses for all of us to enjoy. If you can’t get enough of great shots of ornamental grasses, be sure to check out these posts:

Nan gardens on 4 acres in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In the firm belief that every garden ought to have a pretentious-sounding (or at least pretentious-looking) name, she refers to her home grounds as "Hayefield." There, she experiments with a wide variety of plants and planting styles, from cottage gardens and color-based borders to managed meadows, naturalistic plantings, and veggies--all under the watchful eyes of her two pet alpacas, Daniel and Duncan.

If these pictures don’t change some gardeners attitude about ornamental grasses to the POSITIVE side of using them .. well I don’t know what would !
I am a fan and have many myself .. I’m also very happy to see some CANADIANS mentioned , so thank you Nan and company : )
Joy

An absolutely perfect choice for first gold medal as well as all the others. Congratulations, Phillip (and Jamie and Randy).

Entering this contest is a fun challenge and visiting all the entries is equally exciting. This one was especially enjoyable. It opened my eyes and gave me new perspective on grasses in the snow ~ which I only see if I take a vacation northward in winter.

It would have been so difficult to judge all these marvelous grass entries. Many of your choices were my very own, too… but glad I’m not the judge. Thank you, Nan… that was a lot of work for you.

Congratulations to all the winners. Those are awesome photos every one of them! Good job Phillip, Just love that photo. I would not have wanted to choose because they are all so great in their own ways. Makes you want to go out and get a bunch of different grasses right away! Thanks GGW for having such a fun contest so we can all get a better appreciation of what we look at in our gardens every day.

what a visual treat this morning..many gold winners and ‘Best of the best is the best”..absolutely beautiful ..I would call this picture ..”happy dancing grasses”..congrats to all winners and they are all gorgeous..Nan you did a wonderful job,it seems you have been studying each picture thoroughly and your description in each category makes them even more beautiful. Thank you Nan & GGW ..I enjoy this event a lot.

i am so glad you were the judge and not me….i could not have narrowed it down to just a few awards. they were all so spectacular. it seems to me that the entries were so personal and represented a personal point of view….which makes it even harder to determine a winner.
congrats to all the winners….especially the best of the best winner….philip. it is such a textural…lovely colourful shot.

thank you nan for taking such a insightful look into the pictures. it was fun to be a part of this.

Congrats to all the winners. So many beautiful shots entered, what a difficult choice. Phillip your shot was one of my favorites, just amazing! Thanks to Gardening Gone Wild for hosting this fun contest every month so that we can all see each other’s creativity.

Wow! I had not seen all of the entries and I’m blown away to have been chosen for a Silver Medal. I would have had a very hard time judging this contest~ thank you so much for the opportunity and congrats to all of the winners.

Nan, you picked many of my favorite photos. I’m glad I got a chance to look at so many of them. I remember when I first saw Phillip’s that I thought it had one of the best chances to win. Congratulations to him and all the others. And thanks to you for doing such a good though difficult job! Grasses rock!

I enjoyed seeing everyone’s take on these wonderful plants and was glad I didn’t have to pick. Thanks so much for Gold Award on Lighting. Congratulations to all of the photographers, and especially to Phillip.

I was so thrilled to receive the news that my photo was selected. I enjoyed entering and I want to thank Gardening Gone Wild for the contest. I always enjoy seeing all the entries every month! Thanks again!

As far as visitors to Picture This, the numbers are pretty awesome. But you can check out the # of participants monthly by seeing who has participated on the original Picture This contest on the 5th of the month. Fran